


Weight of Lives

by atlaskat



Category: Dying Light (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Heavy Angst, I'm making Tahir the more sadistic one, Kyle Is Gay, M/M, Multi, My First Work in This Fandom, My headcanons, OCs - Freeform, Out of Character, Rais is bad at feelings, Spoilers, The Following turns out differently, The Mother was just being mean, and rais probably, because i don't like resurrection zombies aight, but he's not as horrible as in the game, character doesn't die when they're supposed to, don't expect a very healthy relationship okay, focus on turkish and otherwise muslim culture, looking at you jade, on the edge of noncon at the very beginning, probably, the infection doesn't physically kill the host, there's just lots of trauma, tragic, troy is very gay, very terrible at them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:01:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22378390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlaskat/pseuds/atlaskat
Summary: In exchange for Antizin, Rais wants one thing: Crane.
Relationships: Ezgi/Troy (Dying Light), Kyle Crane/Kadir "Rais" Suleiman
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	1. Mission

"I'm just telling you, we really need that Antizin. It's getting urgent, Crane." Rahim's voice crackled through the radio, and Crane felt a pang of guilt as the static fizzled out. The memory of piling Antizin crates -- probably the first that hadn't been looted by Rais for weeks -- into an open flame flashed before his eyes. At least now the GRE would get their damn contact with Rais. Unless these guys shot his brains out first.

"Yeah, I know." Crane muttered, before smashing his pipe head into the mushy skull of a biter.

"Oh and Crane," Rahim said somewhat ominously, "make sure you don't sneak up on them. That's a good way to catch a bullet."

Crane scoffed. "Yeah, I got it." He sprinted over a small hill covered in yellowing grass, laying his eyes on a fortified gate only another hundred feet away.

"Who the fuck are you!?" Screamed one of the gate's watchers, gun heavy in his arms, unbothered by the increased guttural sounds his raised voice earned from the biters outside the gate.

"I'm here to speak to Rais!" Crane yelled back, pushing his way past one of the zombies before hauling himself on top of a car and jumping onto a makeshift bridge over the gate. "I'm from the Tower." He added, the guard lowering his rifle.

"The Tower? What do you want?" Said the man, now suddenly seeming much younger behind all his heavy armor and big yellow jacket, simply by the virtue of no longer being as life-threatening.

"I'm here to make a deal." Crane said, walking at a slightly slowed pace towards the guard. He seemed to contemplate for another few seconds, before shrugging his shoulders and nodding his head backwards, signalling for Crane to proceed.

"Alright, let him through!"

Several other men lowered the guns they had trained on him, and stepped aside to allow Crane to pass. He quickened his steps, feeling his breathing pick up slightly with anticipation; finally, he would be able to confirm the mysterious 'Rais' identity, possibly get Antizin for the Tower, and actually proceed within the GRE's mission. The _real_ mission.

He found himself by a large blue door, and put the better part of his forearm into three loud knocks. With guys like this, Crane thought, he needed to act cooperatively -- of course -- but it was also crucial to show a backbone. If Rais was indeed Suleiman, Crane would need to earn his respect in order to have a chance at recovering the stolen file.

A clicking sound, and then the door was pulled aside. Crane found himself inches from the face of a man with sharp features, greasy hair pulled into a ponytail, arched eyebrows. A scar on his forehead. "Who are you?" His tone was quite light, there was no anger or hostility in his voice. He seemed businesslike, a friendly smirk on his face.

"I'm from the Tower. I need to make a deal with Rais." Crane said matter-of-factually. From inside, he heard someone mutter "Tower trash" but he paid no mind. What was more distracting was the scene playing out before him in the yard.

A huge man, easily 6'5", bulging with an obscene amount of muscle, towered over a table where two other guards held a skinny black-haired man down. "You have been lying to us," said the giant in a deep and thickly accented voice, "Rais has been supplying with protection, food, women, in only exchange for loyalty. So it is strange you would _steal_ from _him._ "

Crane wanted desperately to ask, loudly, what was going on -- the giant held a machete in his right hand -- but bit down on his tongue, tearing his gaze from the skinny man's pleading eyes.

The smirking man before him nodded slightly and stepped. "I'm Karim. That's Rais," he gestured toward a man, in a plum colored suit jacket, sitting cross legged on top of a haphazardly built, black-painted structure. "It's best to not disturb him just right now." Karim said in a hushed voice. Crane stepped inside before Karim closed the door, then followed him further inside.

Rais looked interesting. His head was buzz-cut, he sported a dark goatee, and his skin was the color of milk coffee. He seemed to be absentmindedly sharpening the blade of a throwing knife, but Crane could tell he was closely engaged with the scene going on in front of him. While the man himself stayed quiet, his eyes were anything but; his dark gaze was trained on the skinny man.

"With thieves there is only one solutions. Rais is merciful so he give you a choice, your right or your left hand?" The giant's voice seemed to shake the air around it, booming from deep in his chest. Crane tensed up involuntarily at the gruesome violence the sentence promised.

"L-left..." stammered the poor bastard crouched over the table. The machete glinted with sunlight as the giant raised it, and in the next breath the skinny man was screaming in agony. Strikingly red blood gushed out of his arm as the guards pulled him onto his feet and dragged him away. Crane swallowed hard. The giant flicked blood of the machete, and wiped off the rest on his pant leg.

Karim mouthed _good luck_ as he turned back and walked to his post by the door. Crane's eyes jumped around, concluding that the only way out was through that door, and beside Karim, the giant and Rais himself there were two other heavily armed guards. Well, another two _visible_ guards. His eyes returned to Rais -- it almost startled him to find those dark eyes now intently watching him. There was a sparkle of something in them, a silent but nearly overwhelmingly intense interest.

"You have the look of the Tower about you," he said, his voice deep and raspy, the kind of voice that would have made Crane weak in the knees in... admittedly the context would have to have been wildly different, but the point still stood. It was also a voice he had heard several times before, while watching videos of various political meetings, in preparation for his mission."What do you want?"

"I'm here to make a deal." Crane struggled to keep his own voice entirely steady. Rais' eyes lit up in amusement.

"Ah," he dragged out the vowel, "a deal for Antizin, I'm sure."

"That's right."

Rais put his blade aside, hauling himself off his strange throne with a graceful, fluid motion. Crane noticed the dark skin exposed between the edges of the purple jacket was tattooed; black ink snaking its way down hard muscle before disappearing under the fabric of his pants.

"And what do you offer in return?" He said, almost purring. "Your services?" His steps were light as he stalked closer, arching his neck to indicate interest, "your loyalty?" Crane felt his jaw muscles tighten. His feelings were definitely mixed. "Perhaps I shall take both."

"Karim will give you a mission. Do not waste Rais' time." Said the giant, but Rais snapped his head at him.

"Tahir," he said, still keeping his voice amicable but hinting at a greater darkness below the surface, "don't interrupt." The giant, apparently named Tahir, snapped his mouth shut and opted to put down the machete on the blood-soaked table, next to the hand which had began turning white. Crane once again had to force his eyes away from the terrible scene.

"What do I need to do?" Crane cleared his throat, pulled his shoulders back, widened his stance. Hopefully his stance would be confident enough to trick Rais into not thinking the Tower was completely desperate. _And it was his fault, damn it._

Rais chuckled, but now his eyes were a lot colder. "Maybe I'll have you activate a few of the radio towers," he said, "or run some _errands._ " The emphasis made Crane a little wary.

"I don't seem to have a choice," he said, squaring his shoulders even more.

Rais swayed a bit, motioning with his hands. "Perceptive." Then he nodded to Karim, who promptly walked forwards again, hitting Crane in the shoulder.

"I'll brief you, give you a map. Come on."


	2. Business

"Why are you screaming?" Karim's voice cut through the radio. Crane had to catch his breath for a second, running his hand over his face.

"This fuckin' toad-like infected just vomited some kinda acid at me!" His voice cracked up a bit.

"That's a good reason!" Karim laughed into his mic. Crane could hear the smile in his voice, and calmed down a bit.

The toad wasn't as intimidating once Crane got the hang of its attacks. A few hits with his metal pipe and the thing was down, leaking whatever fluids the infection had gotten the body to produce. Crane flicked some of it off his brow to avoid it getting into his eyes, and then looked at the crumpled map again; he was on a roof of a building, and there weren't that many infected around, so he decided to take his chances. The second radio tower wasn't very far away, if he was reading the map correctly. He had first located the Tower on it, then Rais' location with Karim's help. From there Crane had a pretty good sense of the immediate area. Enough to navigate, at least.

Crane picked out the yellow little radio he had been given by the GRE. A few clicks and he heard the usual bleeps of the line connecting.

"Crane here." He said.

"Report." The woman's voice on the other side of the connection was as sterile as ever. They hadn't even given him her name.

"I met Rais. He is definitely your guy..." Crane's voice trailed off for a second, and he was unsure why. "I have to do some sort of mission to cut a deal for Antizin."

"Well done. Continue what you're doing."

"Right," he would have wanted clearer instructions, but he guessed he would have to make do. "Crane out."

He leaped from the roof and landed flat on his feet before sprinting off. The first radio antenna had been completely scavenged for parts, and so his success really depended on the second one.

The foot of the antenna was guarded with electrified fences, so he ran around it until he found two small outhouses. One outside and one inside, with a big metal piece stacked over the fence. Crane hauled himself on top of the first outhouse, alerting the person inside; a frail man in his early 60's.

"Who are you?!"

Crane ran across the connecting metal. "Doesn't matter. I need to climb the tower."

"Why should we let you do that?" Yelled a younger man, looking to be in his 20's.

"Alright look, Rais sent me. I'll do it whether you're alive for it or not."

The old man shook his head. "Jeez, I didn't say to do that. You want to climb that bad? Then climb." He stepped aside, earning a sharp and angry look from his son.

Crane decided not to waste any time, and got to climbing. The way up was long and tiring. Although he was thankful for daylight, having the sun beat down on him to this extent for the second time that day wasn't the most pleasant thing he'd done. The Turkish sun was not to play with, and he hadn't worn any sunscreen.

At the top he couldn't help but squeeze his fists into balls, making his knuckles white in anticipation. Forcing the switch box open revealed a very not-looted-control panel. Crane sighed with relief and flipped the switches.

"Alright, Karim, I activated the antenna."

"Great, I can hear you clearly. Head back."

Crane hooked his fingers around the zip line and left the platform, spending the next few seconds in an exhilarating half-flight. He thanked whatever god might be out there for the leather finger-less gloves he wore; this whole thing would've been a pain without the zip lines. Not that it wasn't already, of course, but still.

His radio crackled to life. "That was you, wasn't it?" Rahim's voice, now void of static, came through. "The communication is completely clear now. This will help a lot of people."

Crane smiled to himself. "That's great." He ran up the hood of a car, jumping from the roof onto the window pane of a building. A zombie reached out its hands after the heel of his boot -- he kicked at it, enough to knock it to the ground, before reaching upwards to climb up the side of the house. Once at the last window, he swung his knee over the edge of the roof, before practically rolling onto it.

He fumbled for the map again, this time stopping for a sip of water as well; the Tower had spared him some drinking water. It was just a bit warmer than lukewarm at this point, heated inside the plastic bottle -- thermoses were apparently not in fashion at the moment -- but to Crane it wasn't much of a deal. He had drunk water directly from muddy puddles before, in order to save himself from a quite painful death via dehydration. Still, having an ice cube wouldn't have been all that bad.

He put the bottle and the map back into the backpack. Thankfully he wasn't too far away. With some luck he would get Antizin to the Tower by midday.

"Crane, there's someone who really wants to talk to you," Brecken's voice made the radio crackle to life. "I'll put her through."

Crane gave a grunt of acknowledgement as he jumped between two buildings.

"Hello?" A woman's voice came through, unknown to him. "I'm Troy. I'm leading a group in one of the more secluded districts. We've been out of radio communication for a long time so we weren't able to contact anyone. Thank you mister Crane for restoring the radio towers and giving my group hope."

"Oh, uh," Crane felt almost embarrassed by the praise. At least doing Rais' bidding was helping others, too. "You're welcome?"

"You've done us a great service. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need us, mister Crane."

"I... will be sure to do that."

He continued sprinting, all the way back to Rais.

__

"What?" Crane's voice was coated with disbelief and outrage. "I don't want to do that! We had a deal!"

Rais' eyebrow went up, an invitation for Crane to challenge him again. See what happens. "The Tower is in dire need of Antizin, no?"

"This is extortion! I am _not_ sacrificing Jade for your fucked up gladiator shit!" Crane threw his hands out. "We. Had. A. Deal."

Interest returned to Rais' eyes. He felt intrigued. This American was the Tower's lap dog, and possibly a GRE operative, but there was a headstrong air about him. Perhaps he wasn't a lost cause.

Crane's eyebrows were tightly drawn together, his muscles tightening from sheer outrage. He didn't want to go around threatening innocent people to pay up for Rais' sake. The two of them stood in silence for a few long seconds, grey-blue eyes against harsh dark ones. Rais' neck was arched to the side, his arms crossed over his chest.

"This isn't a very good strategy to get Antizin from me," purred Rais in that dark, accented voice of his. Crane felt something hot melt into the pit of his stomach. Damn it, this wasn't the time. Rais turned slowly, walking into a corridor into some other part of his headquarters. Crane nearly jumped forward, stomping his feet and swinging his arms aggressively with each step.

"I've already done a job for you." Crane said loudly. Rais moved swiftly and gracefully, turned towards him fluidly once they were in the corridor. His gaze was intense, a new glitter played in them; he looked hungry, excited almost.

Rais smirked as he stepped forward, closing the space between them. His hand ran over Crane's chest down to his hip where it stayed firmly, the other one going up to the wall behind Crane. Crane froze where he stood, eyes going wide in shock; he was too surprised to fight back -- not that he actually wanted to, for some idiotic reason.

"You're lucky I _like_ you," Rais half-whispered, his warm breath strategically hitting Crane's neck making him shiver involuntarily, "I would have others killed for less."

"Aa...?" Crane's words caught in his throat.

"Deciding your own fate. That's what makes a man, Crane," Rais said, suddenly a lot more serious, before letting the sharp-edged seriousness melt back into the amused, teasing smirk. He placed his hand on Crane's neck, thumb over the pulse point. Felt his Adam's apple move as he swallowed -- something which only made Rais smile more through his half-lidded eyes. "I can give you Antizin," he said, the words clearly leading into a pretty big 'but'.

Crane's eyes were fixated on Rais, pulse alarmingly high. He felt blood rush to all sorts of places. It dawned on him how close they were, one of Rais' hands on his hip, the other now curled around the back of his neck. Their lips were close, their chests almost touching. Tension high enough to be a power source for the city's all-night black lights. It was a great position for a steamy make out, but the situation was definitely _not_ what it was supposed to be.

To guide a bit of blood back to his brain, Crane focused on that implied 'but'. He furrowed his brows, indicating for Rais to continue.

"I can give you some," Rais repeated, "but all things have their prices."

Crane had to force his mind not to take "give you some" the wrong way. Although, maybe it wasn't quite wrong, judging by the situation he was currently in.

Rais leaned backwards, sliding his hands off Crane. "Consider this a... trial." his voice trickled off for a second. "Pleasure doing business with you, Crane." He smirked with one corner of his mouth, before handing Crane what would be about a fourth of an Antizin crate.

Crane stared at it for a good thirty seconds, totally speechless, even after Rais vanished down the corridor.


End file.
